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York U student says stolen purse cost her a half-year's tuition

It was supposed to be the start of her first year at York University and the beginning of her student life.

Instead, Yisheng Ma spent most of 2014 handcuffed by red tape and out thousands of dollars of tuition when she says her purse containing her passport and Canadian permanent residence card was stolen en-route to China.

York University won't refund all of Yisheng Ma's tuition, after Ma was forced to miss a year of classes due to bureaucratic red tape after her documents were stolen. She's appealing. (Yisheng Ma)

Ma says she missed almost her entire first year because of immigration woes caused by the theft of her ID. But when she asked the school to refund the tuition for classes she never took, she says the school told her no.

Now, York University says it is re-evaluating Ma’s appeal for a full tuition refund after she says she was forced to miss her first year of classes because of immigration hassles caused by the theft.

But more than the financial strain, Ma says the hardest part has been watching her friends begin their new life as full-time university students, while she waits in part-time limbo.

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“Right now I feel really behind my best friend, because she’s in her second year already and I’m like, nowhere,” she said.

The saga began when Ma, now 19, flew from her home in Toronto to Beijing to visit family the summer before she was set to begin her first year at York University, where she had planned to study psychology.

During a layover at the Chicago O’Hare airport, Ma says she noticed her purse was missing — it had been stolen, she says. In it was all her identification — her permanent residence card, health card and Chinese passport.

Without her identification, Ma says she was stranded in China, unable to return to Canada and begin her classes. All in all, it took her four months to replace her Canadian PR card — a process she says consular officials had told her would only take a month or two.

Thinking she’d have everything in order by October, Ma paid her full year’s tuition in order to hold her spot in class. But by the time Ma finally returned to Toronto in January, she had missed the first half of her school year.

Ultimately, she says she had to drop four out of five of her yearlong courses because she missed the first half of the course material. She says she asked York to refund her $6,906.11 — the value of the courses she had to drop.

York initially refused. In Feb. 2015, Ma filed an appeal with York’s Student Financial Services Appeals Committee, once again asking for a refund. This time, she says the school agreed to refund her half the value of her tuition.

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Ma filed a second appeal in April, asking for the rest. She says that appeal was denied and she was told her file had been closed and that there was no hope of appeal.

“I felt pretty shocked. I understand that my situation is unique, but I do hope for more support and more understanding than I got,” she said.

Asked to comment on Ma’s case, York University spokesperson Janice Walls said the school will review it “to determine if there are extenuating circumstances.”

“I can tell you, however, that we exercise discretion in favour of students in some cases based on the circumstances in which the student finds him or herself, and their efforts to notify the university that they will have to drop courses,” Walls said.

Walls pointed the Star to the school’s policy on financial petitions for courses dropped after the add/drop period is over, which states that students may receive a refund for documented medical illnesses or deaths in the family, but there is no mention of immigration snafus like Ma’s.

Compounding the predicament, Ma said, were China’s strict Internet regulations. She couldn’t use Google or her email, and says she wasn’t able to reach the school to sort out her attendance. At one point, she sent a friend to the admissions office to speak on her behalf, but she says her friend, whom she communicated with by Skype, was told that nothing could be done until she returned to Toronto in person.

Ma resumed her studies this fall, but with her tuition money gone, she’s only been able to study part-time so that she can hold down a job.

“It’s been really difficult on me, I’ve been trying to save up so I can go back,” she said.

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